THIS BOOK, THE FRIENDS I MADE ALONG THE WAY IN WRITING it, and the city of St. Louis have brought so much good into my life that I scarcely know where to begin.
I started to see the city in a new way when I met Tef Poe, and I could not have come to know and love the city in the way I have, nor could I have written this book, without his friendship, his example, and his support. Tef introduced me to Percy Green and Jamala Rogers, and becoming friends with them has been one of the great honors of my life.
Also in (and from) St. Louis, Michael Allen, Jabari Asim, Iver Bernstein, Pam and Tony Berry, Brandon Bosley, Larry Briggs, Sylvester Brown Jr., Keona Ervin, Clarissa Hayward, Johari Jabir, Jonathan Karp, Rockwell Knuckles, Heidi Kolk, Clarence Lang, Aloha Misho, Clark Randall, Jodi Rios, Jay Stretch, Fresh Voice, and Timetria Watkins-Murphy helped me find my way. Mark Loehrer’s knowledge and vision of the history of St. Louis have framed many pages of what I have written here; he has been more a historical guide to me than a research assistant. Miranda Rechtenwald at Washington University and Gwen Moore, Amanda Claunch, and Hattie Felton at the Missouri Historical Society have helped out along the way. Sarah Coffin, Crosby Kemper, and Patrick Tuohey helped me understand the politics of tax abatement in Missouri, and Yoni Applebaum sharpened my first take on the topic.
At Harvard, Aabid Allibhai, Jacob Anbinder, Ione Barrows, Tim Barker, and Mycah Conner helped out with research and provided pointed and helpful comments.
George Lipsitz has been both muse and mentor to me at every step along the sidewalks of St. Louis, which I first came to think about historically through reading his work. Robin Kelley, Lisa Lowe, Nell Irvin Painter, Dan Rodgers, and David Roediger have pointed me toward the type of history that I am still trying to write.
Through the Commonwealth Project and its work in St. Louis, I have come to know José Constantine, Kalila Jackson, Nicole Nelson, and Sam Stragand—freedom fighters. As with John and Alicia Campbell, Justin Hansford, and Brendan Roediger—the other members of the League of Radical Lawyers—I have been blessed to be able to lend a hand in their work, although, truth be told, much of what I have done has been simply sending them brilliant and righteous young people to aid in the work—Che Applewhaite, Catriona Barr, Kale Catchings, Saul Glist, and the inexhaustible, irreplaceable, implacable Robin McDowell, who also helped out with the illustrations, the permissions, and the maps.
Teaching with Vincent Brown and Tommie Shelby has been both humbling and inspiring, as has been working with Brandon Terry and Elizabeth Hinton. I am very lucky to have the four of them, along with Kirsten Weld, my co-conspirator in many schemes, as friends and colleagues. I have learned enormously from Destin Jenkins, Manu Karuka, Justin Leroy, and K-Sue Park. Vivek Bald, Jason Beckfield, Larry Bobo, Evelyn Brooks-Higginbotham, Peggy Burns, Nancy Cott, Skip Gates, Claudine Gay, Roberto Gonzales, Mordecai Lyon, Tiya Miles, Marcie Morgan, and Khalil Muhammad have provided institutional support and intellectual company. Monnikue McCall, Josh Mejia, Kimberly O’Hagan, Arthur Patton-Hock, Cory Paulsen, Flavia Perea, Jennifer Shepherd, and Abbie Wolf also deserve thanks; in ways small and large they have helped keep me from running off into the ditch when I lost track of the road right in front of me.
During the year that they were at the Charles Warren Center at Harvard, I was lucky to have the chance to sit with and learn from Garrett Felber, Julily Kohler-Hausman, Donna Murch, Micol Seigel, and Heather Thompson, as well as the other fellows in the Crime and Punishment Seminar. And the fellows in the Center’s Global American Studies Program—Megan Black, Melissa Castillo-Garsow, Samantha Iyer, Allan Lumba, Elizabeth Mesok, Tejasvi Nagaraja, Juliet Nebolon, Stuart Schrader, and the aforementioned Jenkins and Leroy—have been a source of both pride and inspiration to me in the years I have directed it.
Samuel Moyn is from St. Louis, and his willingness to continue pretending to be amazed by the things I “discovered” about the city where he grew up was a frequent boost to me as I wrote. The influence of Stephanie Smallwood, also from St. Louis, is stamped on the face of everything I have written since I met her in… gee, when was it?… 1999? Jonathan Walton introduced me to both Habakkuk, which was never far from my mind as I wrote about St. Louis, and Micah 6:8, by which I have tried to guide my steps through the city and life more generally. And thanks to Andrew Baker, just because he’s Andrew Baker.
Stephen Aron, Phil Deloria, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Keona Ervin, Nick Estes, Larry Giles, Peter Hudson, Kalila Jackson, Clarence Lang, Richard White, and Andrew Zimmerman have each read draft chapters and been patient with my mistakes (well, not Richard) and generous with their learning. Dan D’Oca, Priscilla Dowden-White, Keona Ervin, Rosemary Feuer, Colin Gordon, Kenneth Jolly, Clarence Lang, Sharon Romeo, and Lea VanderVelde, each of whom has written wonderfully about St. Louis and all of whom have taught me a great deal, have been generous in welcoming me to their territory. Likewise the two St. Louis history dissertation writers on whose committee I have served while writing the book, Laura Leigh Schmidt and Zachary Nowak.
Cynthia Buck, Dan Gerstle, Roger Labrie, Melissa Veronesi, and, especially, Brian Distelberg at Basic Books, as well as Elise Capron, Andrea Cavallo, and, especially, Sandy Dijkstra at the Dijkstra Literary Agency made this book happen and then made sure it would be readable. Kate Blackmer added wonderful maps.
There’s just no way to really describe the friendship and intellectual company of Steven Kantrowitz and Adam Green. I have been extraordinarily lucky to share in their lives and the lives of their families for so many years.
Bobby and Elizabeth Findling and Al Fleig and Venus Masselam (as well as the cast of thousands on the Fleig-Masselam family reunion circuit) have provided good company and good conversation. David Fleig and Lauren Kleutsch are wonderful, beautiful, smart, and supportive in-laws, and they make me proud. And their Jeremiah has the most amazing smile.
George and Barb Johnson, my uncle and aunt, first introduced me to St. Louis. Their love inspires me, just as their generosity has supported me.
My relationship with my brother Willoughby Johnson has only deepened over the years I have written this book. From helping me understand municipal finance when I first started writing about the political economy of Ferguson in the fall of 2014 to reading and commenting on the final draft of the entire manuscript, he has been intellectually involved in every stage of this project. Thanks also to Christy Miller and to Zara and Wynn Johnson.
Giulia and Luca Johnson have grown into people with whom I can talk about history and politics during the years in which I have written this book. It is miraculous—like, literally miraculous, because I cannot take the credit for it—to see them growing into thoughtful and generous adults. Xander and Natalie-Susan Frank have never stopped being curious and asking hard questions, I have learned from their company, and I am enormously proud to be their (other) father. Felix Johnson, the capstone of our blended family, is everything his name suggests and more—a wholly undeserved joy-bringing, life-loving, hope-inspiring gift. In these mean times, I am daily reminded by my children why the world is worth fighting for.
Alison Frank Johnson’s love has sustained me. She read every page of this book, and many of them two or three times. Her comments variously made me laugh out loud, bow my head in shame for what I had done, and nod my head in wise agreement, as if that was what I had meant to say in the first place. Just as she has made me a better person and made my life a better life, she made this book a better book. Her walk by my side is the greatest blessing of a lucky life. Her work on the book, I can say with some authority, has saved you, the reader, some frustration, although it might also have cost you a few laughs at my expense.